1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, an image reproduction apparatus, an image reproduction method, a computer-readable recording medium, an image processing program, an image reproduction program and an image sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique for handling a plurality of image data in an integrated manner is used, for example, in applications in which a plurality of image data which form images are investigated through comparison or for integrated displaying applications such as stereoscopic display or panorama display. In order to handle a plurality of image data in an integrated manner, a plurality of image data are needed. Further, various kinds of incidental information relating to the image data such as, for example, information upon image pickup of the individual images and information regarding in what combination the information should be handled are needed. For example, for the stereoscopic display of an image, identification information representing that the data is of an image, information of the eye point (left/right eye or image pickup spot), horizontal and vertical eye point numbers, an overlapping manner in a horizontal direction (horizontal shift amount) and so forth are needed for each image. Meanwhile, for the panorama display, identification information representing that the data is of a panorama image, information representing at which position (in order) the image is in the panorama and so forth are needed for each image.
Such information for handling images in an integrated manner as described above is frequently handled by various techniques. In particular, according to a technique, as seen in FIG. 18, such information as described above is described in a file 112 for exclusive use separate from files 111-1, . . . , 111-N of individual data and is transferred together with such files 111 (111-1 to 111-N) of the image data. According to another technique, as seen in FIG. 19, a plurality of images to be integrated are physically connected to each other to form a single integrated image 121, and information for handling the images in an integrated manner is incorporated as integration header information 122 into a file.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-30538 discloses recording information that the data is of an image, identification information of whether the image is a left image or a right image and other information as header information individually for image data for left and right images. Upon processing on a recording and reproduction apparatus or a transmission apparatus, image data for left and right images in pair are handled as a single image handling unit. Consequently, such a defective situation that one of image data of left and right images in pair is erased or transmitted in error is prevented.